


Dog Training

by Anonymous



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 10:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5704672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannu: Oh, I’m <i>so sorry</i>, I forgot that dog training included reading the Kalevala out loud. I’m <i>so</i> going to do that in the future.<br/>Ville: I would like that...<br/>http://www.minnasundberg.fi/comic/page215.php</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dog Training

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yuuago](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuuago/gifts).



“And this one,” Hannu explained, tapping his finger against the matching character on the page he held open, “is _ö_.”

In the seat next to him at the small table, Ville tilted his head. It was a familiar gesture changed into a new one by the circumstances Hannu was still working on getting used to: seeing Ville with that curious expression was one thing, but where were his pointed ears all askew?

His distracted thoughts ground to a halt when Ville started talking. _That_ , he’d already had plenty of time to get used to. “Heyyyy. Don’t I recognize this one?”

“Huh? Sure, maybe. It’s part of the alphabet so it’s on signs and stuff…”

“No! I-I mean, that too, probably? But no: isn’t this the one we had to look for in the dream school? Hannu, don’t you remember that? I was a squirrel!”

“I try not to,” he admitted.

“This one’s so plain, though! All those stacks of papers had such pretty designs.” There it was again: a dog’s expression on a human face. That puppy-like pouting Hannu couldn’t help but give into whenever he saw it…

So he closed his eyes. “It’s just a single letter, it’d be a pain if there were flowers all over it every time it showed up in a book. Anyway, that’s all of them, so you can go ahead and read the Kalevala now.”

A long, silent pause passed between them. Maybe he could take a nap, right here in the chair. That sounded like a fine way to spend an afternoon. “I borrowed a copy from Riikka. I think it’s over by the radio, just hurry up and read it quickly so I can get it back before she notices.”

“...that doesn’t sound like borrowing…”

To Hannu, _that_ sounded like _nitpicking_. He shrugged, unbothered and still trying to sleep. It wasn’t as if people just went about their daily lives and suddenly decided to reread a few hundred pages of boring garbage; they could probably take weeks before she managed to realize that the book was gone, if she ever did at all. It’d be fine. And besides: “Riikka’s nice, she won’t mind. She’s not _Paju_.”

Ville’s chair scraped slightly against the floorboards. Hannu grinned, proud of himself and of his teaching skills, as he heard Ville’s departing-and-then-returning footsteps. He must have found the book: good, then.

It landed heavily in Hannu’s lap and jolted him awake. “Ow!”

“Y-you’re being _mean_ ,” Ville stated, leaving no space for debate there, just the honest truth. “And anyway, no one learns how to read that fast, so can you do it aloud? Please, Hannu! You said you would!”

The obvious rebuttal fell dead on his lips: he hadn’t meant it, he had only been teasing Jouko--or _trying_ to tease Jouko, and gotten flicked very hard on the nose for his trouble, so did he really have to have it rubbed in now, too? “Uh,” he said, instead.

The book smelled of old leather and its pages were half-brittle and a little yellow.

It was only out of guilt, or lack of a better argument, or something like that, probably, that he opened it up and started to read from the first line and onwards.


End file.
